Bunbun and the Banyan Tree
by Drachesky
Summary: Danny has a problem and it's not his new partner. Can Steve help him? Or will Steve just make things worse? Set early season 1, one-shot.


**A/N-UPDATED! Revised ending, per your feedback.**

 **I know I promised a unicorn story, and I have several chapters written but I got stuck. I'm definitely not one of the fast writers on here who can whip out multiple amazing chapters in a week. Sigh…**

 **Just some light fun in this one. It's set very early Season 1. One-shot**

...

"Grace, come down and we'll sort this out."

"No!"

"Grace Clara Williams, come down _right_ now!"

"NO!"

Exasperated, Danny Williams threw his hands up and circled the tree again. After their neighbor had called to tell him that his 8-year-old daughter was 'stuck' in the banyan tree across the street, Danny had gone from angry to worried to angry again. Angry that his daughter had broken Rule Number 2: Don't Cross the Street Without an Adult, then worried because she was a good thirty feet off the ground, and angry again because she refused to come down.

As he watched her shift for a more comfortable position between the branches, worry swung back to the forefront. "Gracie, sweetie, I'm sorry, please come down," he begged.

Nearly three stories off the ground, a defiant Grace gripped the trunk harder and glared down at her father from her perch. "I want Bunbun!" the little girl demanded.

"Grace, we talked about this." Nervous, Danny swiped a hand across his hair and tried to recall the conversation he had had just a few days prior with his daughter. "Remember? We said... we, ah, _agreed_ , that it would be a good idea to…" He stopped and groaned as his phone lit up and the _He-Man_ theme song blared across the park. "Oh good grief." Throwing the phone to his hear, he began: "Steve…"

" _Hey man. Just wanted to let you know-"_

"Steve, now is _really_ not a good time." It was never really a good time to deal with his new, trigger-happy partner, but now was particularly not good, for obvious reasons.

It wasn't that Danny hadn't tried to make friends and play nice, but the Navy man was aloof and annoying and brushed off all of Danny's attempts at forming a working partnership. I mean, who turned down fresh malasadas? But the man had brushed off the gesture with his snide 'bypass surgery' comment and left Danny fighting the urge to punch him again.

 _'Don't sweat it,'_ Detective Kelly had told him. _'I grew up around the McGarrett family. Once he solves his dad's case and gets everything in order, he'll be gone again. He's Navy- he won't stick around for long_. _'_ Danny could only hope so. Otherwise, the next person the task force tracked down for murder might be himself.

"Look, Steve: something came up and I'm kind of busy." Danny broke off and looked up at the tree again. "Make that very busy."

" _What's wrong?"_

The immediate concern in Steve's voice was not lost on Danny. Communication with the ex-SEAL had been difficult from Day 1 when the man's lack of communication had earned Danny a bullet graze to the arm. Lieutenant Commander McGarrett's preferred methods of communication involved either bullets or explosives, and after their first few weeks together, Danny had to wonder if there was any hope for a real conversation with him.

Danny was impressed the man could even recognize that something was wrong. McGarrett might not be anything like his old partner back in Jersey, but at least he had enough common sense to know when to shut up and ask the right questions.

" _Where are you?"_ Steve continued through the phone.

"At the park across the street from my apartment. Grace is in a tree and won't come down."

" _Ah shit, man. How far up_?"

"Thirty feet." Danny heard squealing tires and muffled cursing in the background as Steve apparently changed directions. "Who's with you?"

" _Have you called the fire department?_ " Steve asked, ignoring Danny's question.

"No. I don't think they can help." In fact, Danny was afraid they would make things worse.

" _Just hang tight. Keep her from moving around. I'm on my way_."

Danny snorted as he hung up. _Keep her from moving around_. Like he had any control over the situation from the ground. Stuffing the phone in his pocket, he looked up again. "Grace, Uncle Steve is coming over. Don't you want to come down and see him?"

"No!"

Well, there went that idea.

…

Steve pulled up to Pohaku Park and immediately saw that Detective Williams' pleas had had no effect on his stubborn daughter. The park, a messy green space with a few picnic tables scattered under an assortment of tropical trees, featured a large banyan tree as its centerpiece. The sprawling mess of roots, trunks and branches were wove together into a fantastical jungle gym, a paradise of sheer delight for adventurous kids. While the detective paced like a caged tiger below the tree, Grace wiggled around in her perch between several branches to try to get a better view of the newcomers.

Pulling his suspect roughly out of the back of the truck, Steve dragged the man over to Danny and pushed him to the ground beside the nearest tree. "Stay there," he ordered. Joining Danny, he evaluated his options, noticed the man seemed particularly on edge, and opted to give the detective a friendly squeeze on the shoulder. "Hey man."

"Hey," Danny grunted, only briefly taking his eyes off the tree. His sleek, blue tie hung loosely around his neck, his hair was mussed, and the sleeves of his striped button-up were stained with plant matter. Steve gave him a once over, taking time to appreciate again the Jersey native's discomfort for casual aloha wear. "Who's your friend?" Danny asked, catching a glimpse of the man sitting on the ground.

"He's not important," Steve shrugged, ignoring the _Hey, brah!_ from the surfer-styled man behind him. Stepping closer, Steve searched upwards and finally found Grace deep in the foliage of the massive banyan tree. "Hi Gracie," he greeted her as he squinted into the deep shade.

"Hi Uncle Steve," she responded dolefully.

"What, no hug?"

"No."

"So you won't climb down to say hi to me?"

She narrowed her eyes at him.

"Come on, Grace- I can't give you a hug from here. Come on down," Steve opened his arms encouragingly.

"No!" she responded and immediately latched tightly onto the trunk. "I'm _not_ coming down!"

Steve smirked at Danny. "She definitely lives up to her nickname."

"Just because I _call_ her Monkey doesn't mean I want her to be one."

"Brah, who calls their kid 'monkey'?" asked the man in handcuffs.

"Sorry, who are you?" Danny returned, taking in the man's tanned appearance, disheveled board shorts and rumpled floral shirt.

"Oh, that's our carjacker," Steve offered. "You know, the one we've been after for the past 3 weeks?"

"Howzit," the man nodded, raising his cuffed hands in greeting.

Danny threw the man a withering look. "You couldn't have dropped him off at HPD first?" he asked Steve.

Steve shrugged. "You sounded like you needed help." He turned his attention back to Grace. "Hey Gracie, why won't you come down for us?" he called upwards. "Can you not get down? Do you need me to come up there and help you?" Steve placed a hand on the trunk but froze when he saw Grace stand carefully in her place. " _Or not_ ," he said softly.

"Yeah, that's how she got up so high in the first place," Danny explained. "I tried to go up after her, and she went up another ten feet."

"Guess she's not afraid of heights."

"Seriously, that's all you got from this? That my daughter isn't afraid of heights?"

Steve ignored him and stepped back from the trunk, both hands raised in surrender. "Okay, Grace, I'm not coming up there. Why don't you just sit back down for me?" He waited in place until Grace had settled back down into a sitting position. "Okay, Danny, we need to call the fire department."

"What? What did we just talk about? They show up, and she'll go up another ten, twenty feet or more, and then she'll fall."

"Fine, Danno, then let's try this…" Steve laid out his plan in a quiet voice so that Grace couldn't overhear them. From time to time, he glanced skyward, but the girl seemed content in her current position and had made no further moves to stand or climb higher into the tree. When he had finished, Danny nodded and gave his consent. It wasn't a great plan, but, as far as back-up plans went, it was better than anything he had come up with so far. While Steve stepped away to make the call, the carjacking suspect stretched casually and tried to get up.

"I don't think so," Danny said without taking his eyes off the tree. "I'm pretty sure my partner already told you to stay put."

"Oh that's your partner?" The man, instead of sitting, leaned casually against the trunk. "I feel sorry for you, brah. He's a little rough around the edges."

"Yeah, that's what you get when you take on a Navy SEAL for a partner."

"He's a Navy SEAL? Ah sh-"

"Hey!" Danny gestured at his daughter. "Language!"

"Sorry! Sorry, brah." The suspect raised his hands in mock placation. He looked to Steve, who was returning from his phone call and called out, "Man, if I'd known you were a SEAL, I wouldn't have tried to steal your car. You know, cause of your service and all."

Steve gave him a disbelieving look.

Danny actually laughed. "Wow, you are the epitome of brilliance. Piece of advice, Einstein: sit down, shut up." Then in a lower voice to Steve: "Well?"

"He's on the way." Then he looked up at his adopted niece. "How you doing, Gracie? Need anything? Maybe some water? A shaved ice?"

"No thank you," came the reply.

" _Already tried that_ ," Danny muttered.

Steve tried a different route. "So Grace, are you going to tell me why you won't come down?"

"I'm not coming down until Danno brings Bunbun back."

Steve turned to Danny, nonplussed. "Who's Bunbun?"

Danny sighed. "Her stuffed rabbit."

"Okay…" Steve didn't see the connection.

"Rachel and Stan decided Grace was too old for her baby things. They started cleaning out last week, and it was easy to get rid of most of the stuff. I mean, who cares if your parents chuck your old pacifier? But Bunbun has been Gracie's comfort animal since she was still in diapers. It used to be pink and now it's just a dingy shade of grey. It's old, tattered, the stuffing is coming out, no amount of washing would get the smell out…"

"It needs to go, I get it," Steve nodded.

"…but it's still Grace's favorite. She still sleeps with him every night. So when Rachel asked me to have a talk with her, I said yes. Rachel asked me to explain to her that it was time to let Bunbun go. I mean, she'll get new toys, obviously, but the thing was in tatters…"

"Nice of Rachel to let you do the dirty work," Steve commented. "I guess they don't know she's 30 feet up a banyan tree?"

"And they better never find out," Danny threatened in a low voice.

Behind the pair, the carjacker piped up, "So let me get this straight, man: your ex-wife and her new man make you do the dirty work and get rid of your daughter's favorite toys, and then they get the fun job of buying her new presents and being awesome and all?" He shook his head. "That's messed up, brah."

"Thank you," Danny agreed with a wave of his hand. "Not that I can't buy her new stuff, too, but compared to Stan…" he shrugged limply.

Steve grimaced sympathetically. "So what happened?"

"Grace and I had a talk. Stan had already talked to her about getting another stuffed rabbit, or whatever else she wanted, and… well, I thought she understood. So today, while she was at school, I… I threw Bunbun away."

"Not cool, dude." The carjacker shook his head. "Big mistake, brah."

"Yeah, thank you Mr. Hindsight," Danny snarked.

"Let me guess," Steve finished the story, "she comes home from school, realizes Bunbun isn't there, asks what happened, and runs away and climbs the tree?"

"More or less, yeah." Danny twisted slowly, trying to stretch out the crick in his neck. "And now she's been up there for nearly an hour and showing no signs of coming down."

"She's a kid, Danno. She'll wear out eventually."

"Not likely," Danny said darkly. "She's a Williams, remember? Between me and Rachel, she's as stubborn as they come."

…

Danny wasn't sure what kinds of 'contacts' Steve McGarrett had (and if Danny was being honest, he really didn't want to know), but there was no denying that the man had some very useful connections. Within twenty minutes of stepping away to place his few soft-spoken phone calls, a dark blue sedan pulled up, delivered a large, bulky package, and drove away. Danny never even saw the driver who leaned back out of sight as his partner shook hands over the rolled-down window. A moment later, Steve hauled the bulky item into the clearing and began to unroll it under Grace's position.

"I may have bought us a little time," he said in a low voice to Danny as he worked.

"What is this thing?"

"Inflatable mat, used for rescues and some training exercises."

"Right. Cause you have friends with one of these just lying around." Danny noticed that Steve didn't bother to contradict him. "Okay, Rambo- what now?"

Steve looked skyward where Grace was watching them curiously. "How you doing, Gracie?" he called out.

"I'm okay." She kicked her legs against the truck as she watched them work. "What'cha doing?"

"We're going to have a picnic and play on this nice, big, poofy mat," Steve explained as the pad began to inflate. "Want to come down? You can join us."

She cocked her head to one side. "Will Bunbun be at the picnic?"

"No, 'fraid not."

"Then I'll stay up here."

Steve looked to Danny who raised his eyebrows as if to say, _See what I mean?_

" _I really think we need Bunbun,_ " Steve said softly as he monitored the inflation of the large pad.

" _Okay, well, I threw it away. It's probably at the city dump now._ "

Overhearing them, the carjacker shook his head. "I live near here, brah. That garbage truck doesn't come down this street until tomorrow morning. The stupid rabbit is probably still in the dumpster."

Steve sighed. "Look Danny, I hate to say this, but it might be in your best interest to do some dumpster diving."

A slight rustle had Danny looking skyward and Steve followed his example. Grace was fidgeting in her seat again, twisting and turning to find a more comfortable position against the bark. Danny frowned. "I can't just leave her to go dig through the trash, Steve. What if she falls?"

"The longer we wait, Danny, the greater that becomes a possibility. At some point she'll get tired or need to use the bathroom or start to fall asleep. Better to start now…"

"Yeah, okay," Danny interrupted with a wave of his hand. Torn with indecision, his gaze shifted from the apartments across the street to the tree, then to the apartments again. Something in his face- _maybe it was the fatherly concern?-_ struck a chord with Steve who felt suddenly sympathetic for the shorter man.

"You know what, never mind. I'll do it."

"What?"

"I'll go find the rabbit- Bunbun. Just…" Steve grimaced, trying not to think of the horrors that awaited him in the dumpster and he plunged ahead quickly: "What does it look like?"

 _Was this the same man who twisted his arm behind his back, humiliating him in front of his colleagues not too long back?_ Danny searched the toughened SEAL's face for some sign that the man might be joking or plotting his demise, but his partner looked nothing but sincere… and intensely focused. Danny exhaled slowly. "Uh, it's greyish pink, about this big," he spread his hands about a foot, "tattered, missing the left ear, and part of the tag has been chewed off." His eyes found Steve's briefly. "But you really don't have to…"

"Hey man, if she were my kid, I'd want to stay right here by her too. No worries," Steve clapped him on the shoulder. "I've got this."

"Okay. Okay." Danny let out another breath and relaxed somewhat. "So while you're busy with Operation Velveteen Rabbit, I'll just stay here and keep her from falling." He looked up again at the impressive height separating him and his daughter and rubbed a hand over his jaw. "Piece of cake."

….

Leaving Danny at the foot of the banyan tree, Steve was halfway across the street before he abruptly thought of something that would make the job looming before him easier- _much_ easier. Turning back, he quickly grabbed the carjacking suspect and hauled him to his feet. It took less than two seconds for the man to realize exactly where he was headed.

"Ah _hell_ no, brah!" The man dug his feet into the sidewalk and began to protest loudly as Steve dragged him past the truck and across the street toward the run-down apartment complex. "This is cruel and unusual punishment. It's- _ow!_ \- it's torture. I'm gonna file a complaint!"

"Yeah, you do that," Steve grunted. Holding the man by the arm, he pulled him around the back of the building and quickly found the large, green dumpster pushed up against the fence. "Get in."

"Or what?" the man sneered, doing a solid impression of a snobby teenage girl.

Steve stood to his full height and folded his arms as he towered over the shorter man. "You ever heard of immunity and means?" he asked in a low voice.

The carjacker shook his head.

"It's a free pass for me to do whatever the hell I want and get away with it." Steve flexed and fixed the man with his best threatening glare. "And what I _want_ is for you to climb into that dumpster."

The carjacker swallowed nervously.

" _Now_ ," Steve stressed.

"Okay, okay man!" The man shrugged in defeat and quickly scrambled over the side of the green refuse container. "I'm in, see!"

Steve peered over the side as the unlucky criminal began to push the sodden bags of mush back and forth with his shoes. Hawaiian trash was not a smell he had missed during his deployments. Normal trash was bad enough, but add the humidity, rain, and heat of the typical Hawaiian day, and the aromas became particularly ripe.

"You know, brah," the carjacker paused in his endeavors, "I could do this faster if you'd take these bracelets off."

Steve looked at the cuffed hands that were being held out to him and raised an eyebrow.

"I mean, it's not like I can escape or anything…" The man's voice faltered at Steve's expression. "Or not," he amended hastily. "I'll just keep working. It's fine."

Steve masked his smirk and watched the man work, his eyes sweeping the dumpster's contents for any sign of the worn rabbit.

"Ah, sh...!" The carjacker let loose a string of impressive cuss words as one of the bags burst open, drenching his legs in the remains of Chinese take-out and used cat litter. "This is inhumane treatment, brah!"

"I'll be sure to tell the governor," Steve returned drily.

"Those were new shoes!"

"And my truck was going to be what- a new shirt?" Steve eyed the suspect's choice of floral patterning with disdain. "The faster you find that rabbit, the sooner you can take a shower."

"Yeah, yeah." Grumbling, the man dug his foot deeper and flipped over another bag. "Immunity and means, huh? What'd you do to earn that?"

"Drop it," Steve warned.

"You besties with the governor or something?"

"Shut up and work."

"Hit a nerve, huh?" the other man grinned. Picking up another dripping bag, he wrinkled his nose at the contents before throwing it in a corner. "Maybe you two trade favors… immunity and means in exchange for a little something on the side?"

Launching himself over the side of the green metal bin, Steve had the man on his knees in the trash, one arm painfully twisted behind his back, in a matter of seconds. Bending low, he growled into the man's ear:

"I have full immunity and means because a terrorist killed my father. The governor gave me immunity and means so I could hunt down the bastard that did it, and when I hunted him down, I killed him." Steve twisted slightly and didn't miss the pain and fear that rippled across the man's face. "If you want to experience my _full_ immunity and means, then keep running your mouth and see what happens."

"No… no thanks," the man panted.

Steve released him. "You've got a stuffed rabbit to find."

The suspect backed away to the other side of the dumpster, rubbing his arm as he eyed Steve warily. "I guess a little help here is out of the question?"

Steve hopped out of the dumpster and wiped both hands on his pants. "What do you think?"

"Uh… I guess I think I'm going to find that rabbit."

"Yeah, I thought so."

…

Danny smelled the returning pair before he saw them. Tearing his eyes away from Grace, he found the victoriously filthy duo hurrying across the street toward him, Steve holding the bunny aloft as he dragged his hapless suspect along behind him.

"We found it, Danno," Steve stated the obvious, placing the worn critter in Danny's hands.

"You mean _I_ found it," the carjacker interjected sullenly.

"It could probably use a wash-" Steve continued.

"Or three."

"-but at least Grace will climb down now," Steve finished, ignoring his prisoner's comments.

Danny's face opened with a genuine smile of relief as he took the rabbit and looked it over. "So you went into the dumpster then?" he addressed his partner's prisoner as he eyed the man's rumpled and filthy clothing. "Good for you. It's always messy when people don't cooperate with him. I end up having to clean the car afterwards and it is _so_ difficult to get blood out of the carpet."

Steve grinned as his prisoner paled under the cling of miscellaneous food droppings. Having Danny as a partner might not be too bad after all- he could definitely get used to his dry, sarcastic humor. "Well, I'm glad we could help, Danno." In truth, he was relieved that the situation was finally drawing to a close. There were many things that he could do as a Navy SEAL, but catch his partner's young daughter from a 30-foot drop was not one of them.

"Thank you," Danny said with feeling as he brushed a few stray crumbs from the sticky fur. "But you still can't ride in my car until you've taken a shower or three."

Steve looked down at himself and realized his short jaunt in the dumpster had accessorized his attire with stray potato peels and several ketchup smears. Grinning, he opened his arms wide. "You know Danno, after all that work, I think I deserve a hug."

"So help me, I will break both your arms, Steven," Danny said as he backed away rapidly. "If you'll excuse me, I have a daughter to rescue." Grinning, he held the bunny aloft and called, "Gracie! Look what Uncle Steve found!"

Gracie's excited squeal could be heard across the entire park.

"You ready to climb down now, Monkey?"

Grace stood carefully and began to pick her way along the branch toward the trunk. She'd gotten only a few feet, however, before she sat down suddenly.

"Gracie, what's wrong?" Danny frowned, unable to quite tell why his daughter had stopped.

"I'm… I'm scared, Danno."

Steve shaded his eyes. "Can't she climb down by herself?"

"She's eight, Steven. If she's scared, I'm not sure I want her to try coming down by herself."

"So what's the plan? You going up there after her? Or does Danno not climb?"

"Shut up, Danno climbs just fine. But," Danny gestured at his office slacks, shoes, and tight button-up, "I can't climb in these. Not up that high up, anyway, and if I move out of sight, she'll get nervous and start crying." He bit his lip and paced back and forth under his daughter. "I'm scared, Steve. I'm scared for her. The fall alone is enough to do some damage, even with your fancy mat."

"Shouldn't have thrown away her toys, brah," the carjacker interjected. When both men turned their glares on him, he shrank back against the tree. "Dude, I don't care what kind of immunity and means you have, but I am _not_ climbing that tree."

"Wasn't thinking about it," Danny glowered.

"I was," Steve glared. He was also imagining some other creative interrogation techniques a bit higher up off the ground, but those would have to wait until his protocol-abiding partner was no longer present. Leaving Danny with his prisoner, he went to the truck and rummaged around in the back. Then he grinned. " _And you said I would never need this,_ " he chuckled to himself. " _Told you so_."

…

"Danno?" a wavering voice called.

"Yes, Monkey?"

"I want to come down," Grace sniffed. "I'm hungry."

"I know, baby. What if a nice fireman comes to get you?"

"I want _you_ , Daddy."

Danny's heart broke at the pitiful voice. "I know, sweetie, and I'll be right here as soon as you get down." He turned his attention briefly to Steve who had reappeared and was adjusting the straps on his harness. "Oh. Okay, so, uh…" Danny wiped his hands nervously on his pants. "That's my daughter, Steve, and… ah… if anything happens to her…"

Steve flashed Danny a grin as he adjusted the coil of rope draped over his shoulder. "Relax, D. I've done this before."

"Not with my daughter, you haven't."

"Danny. Look at me, man. I've got this. Grace is going to be fine."

Danny nodded absently. Steve's voice was confident and meant to be comforting, but it was a confidence that Danny didn't feel. Instead, he was suddenly nervous as a thousand other endings, none of them pleasant, played out in his mind.

"Okay?" Steve waited at the foot of the tree. "Can I go up now?"

"What? Oh. Yeah. Okay." Reluctantly, Danny stepped away and shaded his eyes as his partner began his skyward ascent. The sun had dipped in the afternoon sky and the entire tree was aglow in warm, green light. It would have been a good day- Danny might even have ventured to call it 'pleasant'- if his daughter's safety wasn't on the line.

Quick and nimble, Steve shimmied up the tree with an agility that Danny didn't know was possible for the towering SEAL, skimming along branches as he moved toward Grace's position. The tree was a veritable jungle gym of stems with curtains of wispy red hanging roots, but Steve threaded his way through the maze with ease and was soon seated comfortably on the branch across from Grace.

Danny held his breath as Steve reached out to slip the small safety harness around Grace

He winced as Steve cinched it as tight as the straps would allow.

Danny scrunched his face. He pinched his nose. He folded and unfolded his arms.

But he never looked away.

A few minutes later, Grace was safe and sound on the ground, and Danny scooped her into his arms, harness, rope, and all.

Steve smiled from the sidelines. "What did I tell you, partner? Piece of cake."

Danny grinned at him over the top of Grace's head with one of the first genuine smiles Steve had seen. "Thank you."

Steve coiled the rope, unbuckled the harness, and stowed the items in the truck. Then he unlocked his prisoner from the tree.

"So, uh… is my generous community service going to earn me anything?" the man asked as Steve led him back to the truck.

"Yeah. The thankfulness of an 8 year old girl. Anonymously, of course." He opened the door. "Get in."

"Right. Okay." The man crawled awkwardly in and leaned back as Steve fastened the seat belt around him. "But I get a shower and clean clothes, though. Right?"

Steve shrugged. "Any other questions?"

"No." The man leaned forward for one last look at the happy reunion between father and daughter outside the window. "Nope. We're all good here, brah."

...

 _Next Day_

"So where'd your carjacker friend end up?"

"No idea. Probably still over at HPD." Steve rested on the edge of his desk with a thermos in one hand while Danny settled comfortably onto the leather couch in his office. "Why do you ask?"

Danny shrugged. "It's Grace, really. She overheard you two arguing and figured out later that he had helped find Mr. Bunbun in the dumpster. She thought that was very brave and wanted to write him a thank you note." Danny habitually adjusted his tie before stretching one arm across the back of the couch.

Steve smiled. "Aw. That's sweet, man."

"Actually she wanted to thank him in person," Danny amended, "but I shot down that idea."

"She seems like a great kid, D."

"When she's not climbing large trees and breaking Danno's rules, she probably is."

"Uh oh. Is she in trouble?"

"Oh, you could say that. You'll have to apologize to Chin's uncle for me- we're not going on the catamaran this weekend. Instead, we're going to have some quality father-daughter time at home. In doors. Cleaning the house."

"You grounded her?" Steve frowned. "Isn't that a bit harsh? She was really looking forward to being out on the water."

"And I'm sure she'll get the chance again. It's not like we're moving off this lava rock any time soon."

"She was upset. So she climbed a little high in the tree…"

"A _little_ high?!" Danny began gesturing with his arms, then stopped himself. "She's not being grounded for climbing the tree- although that does factor in. She's being grounded for breaking Danno's Rule #2."

"Yeah, you explained that to me, Danny: _Don't cross the street without an adult._ But-"

"There are no _but_ s here, Steven," Danny interrupted with a wave of his hand. "Before you go feeling sorry for her and giving me those sad puppy eyes- because, believe me, I'm already getting enough of that at home- let me ask you this: what if she had broken Danno's Rule #1?"

"I dunno," Steve shrugged. "Guess that depends on the rule. What's Rule #1?"

"Don't tough Danno's gun."

"Oh."

"Yeah." Danny rubbed a crick in his neck uncomfortably. "I don't have many rules- just three, in fact- and there's a good reason for each one. Don't touch Danno's gun. Don't cross the street without an adult. And Don't talk to strangers. Letting her disobey one rule without consequences sends the message that I don't take the other rules seriously."

"Ah." Steve nodded. "I get it."

"You do?"

"Yeah man. Military works the same way. I've had a lot of different commanding officers, some good, some bad. And the bad ones- yeah, if they didn't enforce the rules, guys would keep pushing, seeing how far they could go, and somebody would get hurt. Rules- most anyway- are there for a reason."

"Funny. I don't see you following _our_ rules very well."

"Immunity and means, Danno."

"Right. Anyway… I do _not_ want Grace to get hurt. Later on, the rules will change. I'll probably have to change _Don't cross the street_ to _Don't go on a date_ or something. But for right now, the rule stands as is."

Steve chuckled. The two men sat in companionable silence for several long minutes.

"You know," Danny said eventually, "there _is_ a downside to all this."

"Yeah? How's that?"

"Now I have to explain to Rachel why our daughter is still carrying Mr. Bunbun around."

Steve took a thoughtful draw on his coffee. "What are you going to tell her?"

"Heck if I know. I was hoping you'd help me. I need a good cover story. Something that does _not_ involve my daughter being thirty feet off the ground in a banyan tree."

"I dunno, man. From what you've told me, she's going to find out sooner or later. I mean, won't Grace tell her?"

Danny shook his head. "For right now, it's our little secret. And I'm hoping it stays that way. We have that custody hearing coming up and Rachel and Step-Stinker don't need any more ammo."

Steve snorted.

"So you going to help me or not?"

"Uh…" Steve hedged and took a sip of coffee.

"Huh. And here I thought we almost had a thing going."

"A 'thing'?"

"Yeah. You know." Danny hesitated. "Friendship," he added reluctantly.

"So we're friends now?" Steve rubbed his cheek where Danny's fist had connected not too many weeks prior. "Okay, fine. Let's tell Rachel that you just didn't have to balls to take it away from her."

"What? No!"

"What about telling her that the rabbit is a useful asset for an investigation?"

"That doesn't even make sense."

"Mr. Bunbun could be used to smuggle drugs in a toy shop, so we need it for an undercover investigation and Grace gets to have him until we get finished."

"Using her stuffed rabbit for an undercover op? Are you mental?" Danny tapped his head and gestured wildly in Steve's direction. "Do you _want_ me to lose custody?"

"Fine, what about this: the removal of Mr. Bunbun would be psychologically damaging and you refuse to go along with her evil scheme to ruin Grace's mental and psychological health."

Danny stood up from the couch. "You know what, forget it. Just forget I asked." He headed for the door.

"So are we still friends, then?" Steve called at his retreating back.

"With friends like you, I sure as hell hope I don't have any enemies!"

Steve grinned and took another long sip from the thermos. _Friend_. He rolled the word around in his mind for a few moments. He had a friend. A civilian friend. Not a commanding officer or a romantic partner, but a friend. He drained the last of his coffee and sat down at his desk. Maybe this job wouldn't be so bad after all.

 **A/N: Eh. It needs more revisions, but I'm bored with this one and didn't want to dump it (which is what usually happens when I get bored). I could post an updated version later with suggestions? I don't like a lot of the carjacker lines… feel like they detract from the rest of the conversation. Your thoughts? And does he need a name?**


End file.
